I was reading back through a different blog of mine which I used to use (closed for various reasons) and realized that there were several posts on there which might be interesting to readers of this blog since the posts are all about our transition to the homestead and our trailer transformation. So over the coming weeks (or months, knowing me) I will be copying those posts to this blog. I will try to make it very apparent from beginning of each post that it is an oldie.

For today’s offering, we have our very first announcement that we we making serious plans to move to Castle Rock.

OCTOBER 21, 2013

I’ve been waiting to write this post until our plans were more than a dream. Well, last week we plunked down a large chunk of change to get this ball (or would that be “tire”?) rolling. Here’s a picture of our new home (sitting outside our current home)!

Ok, so it’s not our new home quite yet. But it WILL be, hopefully within the next year.

She’s not much to look at right now. She’s got some issues. But really, considering the thing is 33 years old, she’s been very well taken care of.

The only picture I have of the “living room”.

Learning to live in the trailer already

So, WHY are we eventually moving into a trailer you might ask. Well, that’s the only way we’ll be able to afford to build our house. Yep, we’re building a house. If you are friends with us on Facebook, you’ll have seen where we’ve gone camping at Castle Rock (our property) a couple of times this summer. Here’s some pictures.

Look closely (click on picture and it should enlarge) and you can see the Suburban and a blue EZ-up – they are sitting on the house pad.

Beauty at Castle Rock

On top of “Castle Rock”

The valley (and town) is in top left of pic, house pad just to right of center

Eventual house site

See, with a bit more water, cottonwoods can grow here – this is down in the bottom of the canyon.

Neat crevice down in the bottom of the canyon below Castle Rock

So, no, it’s not lush and green land (which is nearly unheard of here in Nevada) but it’s 40 acres and quiet and secluded AND close to town (see panorama above). And here’s the biggest deal, it’s my family’s land, so it’s already paid for (though there will be some sort of rent/mortgage to Mom). The only thing that’s been improved on the land is a driveway and house pad cut. Which means we will need to have a well dug, bring in power of some sort, improve the driveway, AND build a house. All on a cash basis, so it’s gonna take a while. But that’s why we bought the trailer. By living in the trailer on the land while we are building, we cut out a lot of our current living expenses (minimal rent, no electricity to pay for since we’ll be on solar, etc.)

We’re pretty excited about this next stage of our lives. We’re looking forward to downsizing (some things will go into storage), to living in close quarters with each other, to working hard and accomplishing much in the next several years. We’re also looking forward to getting out of our neighborhood where things are stolen from our front porch and our neighbors are just right there, to having more land and bigger gardens and more animals.

It’s gonna be fun!